THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS COMMUNITY CENTER: A ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE BY RONALD FLEWELLEN

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1 2013 Observation Paper THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS COMMUNITY CENTER: A ROADMAP FOR THE FUTURE BY RONALD FLEWELLEN DREXEL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE. INFO 650: PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES. PROFESSOR JOSEPH GALBRAITH

2 Introduction The corporate mission of the Barnes & Noble national chain of bookstores is to deliver a superior experience for all our customers by embracing the concept of a retail store as a community center. (Community, 2013) While we would not be at all surprised by any retail enterprise having the first part of the above as a part of their mission statement, it is the second part, the concept of a retail store as a community experience, that is rather far reaching to the point of seeming pretentious if not insincere. Whether any of the hundreds of Barnes & Noble stores across the county has ever functioned as a community center is of minor significance in comparison to the value of the aspiration itself, less for national bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble, than for public libraries. Not constrained by the need to generate a profit, the capacity of public libraries to claim this distinction is superior to any commercial information provider by freeing the former to support a range of public services that fulfill the broader needs and interest of a community, not just those for which members of that community are willing or able to pay. And the extent to which public libraries are able to transforms themselves into community centers or what Nicholas Warren calls true 1

3 public spaces, is perhaps the key to their continued viability in the face of reductions in public financing and the advancing challenge of electronic media and the array of devices to retrieve them without the user ever leaving their home. (Warren, 2011) In this paper I will explore the largely successful efforts of the Princeton Public Library to make that transformation, aided and abetted more broadly by those adventures it has taken on its own to strengthen the bonds between the library s traditional function and the needs of the community in which it operates but also by what it shares and has learnt from the national chain bookstore. By such efforts, the Princeton Public Library may serve as a fitting model for public libraries everywhere. What Visitors to the Princeton Public Library Will Encounter Located in the center of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, the Princeton Public Library is a newly designed three-storied structure occupying nearly a full block in Princeton with total interior space of 58,000 square feet. Its orange colored brick façade and tall columns along the entire length of the side facing one of the Borough s major thoroughfare provides a welcoming and inspiring view for pedestrians and other travelers even if their destination was not originally the 2

4 library. (Borough of Princeton, 2013) Flanked on one side by the serene and historic Princeton Cemetery of Nassau Presbyterian Church and on the other the borough s central public square, where a farmer s market is held weekly during the warm months of the year, the library s design is proof of Peter Gisolfi s conclusion that the best architectural solutions are contextual and imaginative. (Gisolfi, 2012) Entering the library from the public square, visitors are first met with the library s café, the Terra Libri, where they may enjoy a pastry, pizza or a healthy beverage while catching up with friends or enjoying a good book at one of the 5 tables completing the café. Just across from the Café is the Community Room, the size of a university lecture hall, reserved for events of interest to the public at large including business sponsored and technology training seminars, guess speakers and film showings. Just to the right of the café and community room sits a long corridor, where visitors can find restrooms, information on the library and upcoming community events, as well as a beautiful mural. Continuing pass the corridor, visitors will enter into the first floor circulation area, an expansive open space containing an express checkout and information station immediately to the left and the main checkout and information desk immediately to the right. Just pass the 3

5 main checkout and information station rest a row of individual computer stations. Entering the first floor collection area, the visitor s first encounter will be the audio and video area, containing all the popular film, television and music titles he or she might likely find in the larger chained book retailers. Proceeding further into the space, visitors will encounter a New Books area. Brick columns carry the name of the person who donated the space, a feature repeated throughout the library. Across from the New Books area and extending to the very the back of the library is the fiction collection. This area is divided into three sections, one for Suspense, one for regular fiction and the third for fiction in large print, with each section arranged in alphabetical order by author s surname. At the end of the fiction section is a large rectangular reading and lounging space. The second floor, accessible by stairs or elevator, houses the reference and non-fiction collection. Utilizing Dewey classification system, the non-fiction collection is arranged from right to left beginning with works in Computer and Journalism and ending with works in American and South American History. Along the outer walls throughout the second floor space are small and medium size reading 4

6 rooms, which patrons and businesses may reserve in advance, and one large conference room and Technology Center. Visitors will find an even larger number of computer terminals on the second floor adding to the total of more than 100 multimedia computer stations the library provides for personal use. (Technology Center, 2013) A visitor to the Princeton Public Library will observe few staff on the floor (in the circulation areas.). Each of the Circulation and Information stations were manned by a staff member who, when assisting patrons, were primarily addressing non-bibliographic related service issues. The Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Hamilton Marketplace The Barnes & Noble Bookstore at the Hamilton Marketplace, located on the very east end of Hamilton, New Jersey, is the only bookstore for the nearly 14,000 residents of Robbinsville, New Jersey located just one mile north of the bookstore. (Robbinsville Township Mercer County, NJ, 2013) On entering the stores one entrance, visitors will first encounter two New Arrivals tables on their left and one New Arrival stand to their right. Looking further right, they will catch sight of the café and lounge, a signature of Barnes & Noble stores nationwide. Like the Princeton café, the lounge provides a robust seating area where visitors can sit 5

7 and read a book, peruse a periodical from the newspaper and periodical racks located between the café and the entrance, work on their laptop all while enjoying a coffee, cold beverage or a fancy pastry. An important innovation and key to Barnes & Noble s continued viability over other national bookstore chains, the Nook, gets special exposure with four white rectangular display tables containing tablets and accessories posed immediately past the entrance just off from the New Arrivals. Intermixed between the New Arrivals and the Nook display tables is a rack for staff recommended books and books currently running in the cinema, but these racks are not easily visible to the visitor. Proceeding further in to the store, visitors will shortly reach the main Customer Service station, where visitors mostly seek information on specialty or hard to find titles or to request assistance with their Nook inquiries. Whether visitors proceed to their right or their left, they will encounter full racks of books arranged by subject area beginning with Fiction & Literature. The fiction and non-fiction reference collections are retrieval by author. At the back of the store is the fairly extensive audio and visual collection with titles ranging from popular to the more highbrow. 6

8 At the south end of the bookstore is a segregated space devoted to children literature aptly named Barnes & Noble Junior. The Extended-Service Model: The Public Library and the National Bookstore Chain While the threat to the survival of the public library from bookstores has declined sharply over the past decade, the extended service model advances by such chain book retailers like Barnes & Noble contributing to their continued viability in contrast to other chains has not been lost on the Princeton Public Library. (Noguchi, 2011) The description of each of the venues above underscores some core commonalities between Princeton Public Library and the Barnes & Noble store at Hamilton Marketplace patrons of each would find appealing and attractive. One is the location of the New Books/New Arrivals section. This is the first encounter visitors will have entering both venues. Each venue also have a section or rack for staff recommended books. Second, is the placement of the main customer service station so that it is easily located and assessable by the visitor? Third, is the user-friendly arrangement of the collection by subject area rather than classification? Fourth, is the organization of the popular collection, fiction by author making it easier for the patron or the 7

9 customer to find the title of their interest? Fifth is the café and lounge are. This is a common feature in most Barnes & Noble locations and has become a popular feature at the Princeton Public Library, where it remains open one full hour after the circulation and service areas of the library have closed. (Location and Hours, 2013) Lastly both venues offer a splendid video with a particular strength in foreign language and international titles. While the title collection at Princeton Public Library is not as vast as the offering at most Barnes & Noble bookstores, it is comparable and receives high exposure on the library s website. (World Cinema, 2013) Access to information delivery devices has been an area where Barnes & Noble has excelled, extending its viability where other popular chain book sellers failed. (Noguchi, 2011) Princeton Public Library, which it does not offer a proprietary tablet or reader, it does provide a range of devices by which patrons can access web-based electronic resources, including Kindle, the IPad and the Barnes & Noble nook. (Technology Center, 2013) Advertising, marketing and communicating with consumers has been one of the major tools commercial enterprises use to grow and prosper. Barnes & Noble employs and multifaceted approach from 8

10 traditional strategies to its interactive and user-friendly website and social media. While the Princeton Public Library website is not as userfriendly, it excels in its transparency, providing a superior introduction to the library, its mission as well as its collection and services while providing information on upcoming events and matter some libraries would want to keep under wraps like operational structure, budget and funding sources, minutes from recent board meetings. (Board of Trustees, 2013) Along with its website, the library publishes a quarterly newsletter, Connections available in print and online. (Connections, 2013) The library offers communication through its blog, twitter page and Face book. Through it Friends of the Library, the library is able to connect with the Princeton community in a more interpersonal way. Servicing the Community: Going Where the Bookstore Cannot While the Barnes & Noble at Hamilton Marketplace largely lives up to its corporate mission and core value of delivering a superior experience for all our customers it cannot go where the public library can in way of those services designed to meet broader community needs and interests, constrained as it is by the need to be profitable to prosper. The concept of the bookstore as the community center is to some 9

11 degree an abstraction in the case of the bookstore, even one as community oriented as Barnes & Noble, if one thinks of a community center as more than a place where public events are held and places where children can come and be read to. The concept appears much more concrete and realized when we look at the Princeton Public Library with its promotion and delivery of such community friendly services as library-sponsored training in digital literacy, collaboration with outside agencies to assist patrons with enhancing their employment outcomes, free Wi-Fi internet access and a range of devices to access digital media. These services support the findings of the Executive Summary in the Public Library and Technology Access Study. (Hoffman, 2012) These services are in addition to the main stay of community-oriented services practically all public libraries and bookstores support such as community events, children reading times and programs for young adults. While all these services combined gives public libraries such as Princeton a leg up on commercial information providers in the area of community support and partnership, Princeton goes several steps further in their community outreach. It is these additional steps that makes Princeton University Library a representative model for the 10

12 public library s survival as a viable social institution in the face of decreasing public financing and the ever- changing information landscape. These include providing meeting and seminar spaces, not limited to library use but to local organizations and business. The library also partners with area museums to enable their patrons to access these institutions at an affordable fee. The library partners with Princeton University through a number of programs including interlibrary loan and other resource sharing programs provided to library patrons. The library also contains a permanent art collection and holds special art exhibits throughout the year. Admittedly, much of the success Princeton Public Library has enjoyed is due in no small way to factors that are not easily duplicated in rural and low-income communities. For one, Princeton Borough population of roughly 14,000 residents have per capita income of $37, 328. (United States Census Bureau, 2013) This compares to a per capita income of $14,743 for New Brunswick, New Jersey, which is also a major college city located on 20 miles north east of Princeton, NJ. (United States Census Bureau, 2013) As Denise Agosto observes, given the reliance of public libraries on local tax revenues, particularly property taxes, the disparities in per capita incomes can have a dramatic 11

13 impact of the ability of communities like New Brunswick to generate the levels of financing in comparison to communities like Princeton, NJ. (Agosto, Alternative funding for public libraries: trends, sources, and the heated arguments that surround it., 2008) Two, Princeton Public Library, with its close proximity to New York City, Philadelphia and a number of large corporations within the state of New Jersey can solicit and attract non-public funding to the extent that public libraries in rural and low income communities cannot. In fact, the library reported 20 percent of its funding as having come from private donations. Three, Princeton Public Library benefits from residing only three blocks from the entrance to the campus of Princeton University recently ranked no. 1 among all American Colleges in Forbes Magazine of College Ranking. (Town Topics, 2013) And four, the Princeton community enjoys an illustrious history and long list of favorite sons and daughters including Albert, Einstein, Paul Robeson, his father William Drew Robeson ( ) and Annis Boudinot Stockton ( ) to name a few. (Historic People, ) Even granting these advantages, it is the Princeton Public Library s focus and commitment to the concept of the library as a community center more so than the individual programs and services it 12

14 supports that it becomes a model for public libraries everywhere. This focus and commitment is conceptualized in the library s mission and statement of values. Our mission is to be the community's living room, connecting people through words and ideas to enrich their lives and help them to realize their dreams. Our vision is to remain the heart of a civically engaged community. (Get to Know Us, 2013) Under the right leadership, there is every reason to imagine public libraries in rural and low income communities or that lack the same advantages as Princeton could attain comparable results assuming a focus and commitment to the idea of the library as a community center matching if not exceeding that of the Princeton Public Library. Denise Agosto s study of libraries in the Lubuto Library Project in Zambia, where libraries and their communities face hardships perhaps more extreme than libraries in rural and low income communities in America, is an illustration of what can be achieved even in the most disadvantage of circumstances. (Agosto, The Lubuto Library Project as a model for school library media services for disadvantaged youth, 2008) Conclusion In this paper I proposed that while the concept of the public space and community center is realized in the national bookstore chains like 13

15 Barnes & Noble, it is so only in a limited degree when compared to the public libraries like Princeton. But supporting additional services and programs not usually associated with public libraries, even those, highly organized around community center services, the Princeton Public Library and libraries like it represents a vision for the future and a road map for the continued viability of the public library. References Agosto, D. E. (2008). Alternative funding for public libraries: trends, sources, and the heated arguments that surround it. In Advances in librarianship (pp ). Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing LTD. Agosto, D. E. (2008). The Lubuto Library Project as a model for school library media services for disadvantaged youth. Knowledge Quest, 37(1), pp Board of Trustees. (2013). Retrieved February 8, 2013, from Princeton Library: Borough of Princeton. (2013). Retrieved February 6, 2013, from Princeton Borough: Community. (2013). Retrieved February 6, 2013, from Barnes & Noble Booksellers: community.html Connections. (2013). Retrieved February 8, 2013, from Princeton Library: 14

16 Get to Know Us. (2013). Retrieved February 06, 2013, from Princeton Library: Gisolfi, P. (2012). Libraries and their landscapes. Library Journal, 137(20), pp Historic People. ( ). Retrieved February 8, 2013, from Historical Society of Princeton: Hoffman, J. B. (2012). Public library funding & technology access study Executive summary. Retrieved February 7, 2013, from American Library Asociation: t/initiatives/plftas/2011_2012/plftas12_execsummary.pdf. Location and Hours. (2013). Retrieved February 6, 2013, from Princeton Library: Noguchi, Y. (2011, July 19). Why Borders failed while Barnes & Nobles survived. Retrieved February 7, 2013, from NPR: Robbinsville Township Mercer County, NJ. (2013). Retrieved February , from United States Census Bureau: cts.xhtml#none Technology Center. (2013). Retrieved February 5, 2013, from Princeton Public Library: Town Topics. (2013, February 10). Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America. Retrieved February 10, 2013, from Town Topics: -number-1-in-forbes-magazine-college-rankings/ 15

17 United States Census Bureau. (2013). Retrieved February 9, 2013, from United States Census Bureau: ductview.xhtml?fpt=table United States Census Bureau. (2013). Retrieved February 8, 2013, from United States Census Bureau: ductview.xhtml?fpt=table Warren, N. (2011). An essential community element: public libraries as public space. APLA Bulletin, 73(3), pp World Cinema. (2013). Retrieved February 8, 2013 from Princeton Library: I certify that: This paper/project/exam is entirely my own work. I have not quoted the words of any other person from a printed source or a website without indicating what has been quoted and providing an appropriate citation. I have not submitted this paper/project to satisfy the requirements of any other course. Your Signature [typed is OK Date: 02/10/

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